Process of making rail-bonds.



L. P. CRECELIUS.

PROCESS OF MAKING RAIL BONDS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, 1914- Patented May 8,1917.

, UNITED STATE PATENT @FFIQE.

LAWRENCE P. CRECELIUS, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR. TO THE ELECTRIC RAIL- WAY IMPROVEMENT COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 8, 191%.

' Application filed November 23, 1914. Serial No. 873,517.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LAWRENCE P. Canon- LIUs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahogaand State of Ohio, have invented a certain a bond having a conductor which is incornew and useful Improvement in Processes of Making Rail-Bonds, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a process of producing rail bonds.

It has been customary in the manufacture of rail bonds to incorporate the ends of a stranded or ribbon conductor into terminals by a process of forging or swaging. However, such process has numerous disadvantages among which are :the strands are liable to be injured or weakened at the point where they enter the terminal because of excessive pressure required in the process; the excessive heat required to intimately unite the conductor with the terminal frequently injures the strands and causes serious oxidization, and it is often the case that the terminal and the strands of the conductor are held together mechanically and are not intimately united with the result that when the bond is secured to the rail by pressing against the terminal one or more heating electrodes, the joint between the conductor and terminal becomes loosened.

To avoid the injury to the strands of the conductor at the point where they enter the terminal socket, it has been proposed to unite the conductor to the terminal with variable degrees of intimacy, i. 6., homogeneous at one point and progressively less intimate until the point of entrance is reached where the terminal is designed to normally surround the conductor. Ihis method has the objection that at no point are the strands welded to the terminal unless excessive pressure and excessive heat with their consequent disadvantages are employed, and furthermore, the variabledegrees of intimacy progressing from homogeneity at one point to zero at the end of the terminal permit moisture and foreign matter to enter between the terminal and conductor at the point where the terminal normally surrounds the conductor, and by reason of the varying degrees of intimacy,

capillary attraction draws the moisture into the socketed terminal, with the result that in many instances corrosion destroys or weakens the union between the parts.

The object of my invention is to provide porated into the terminal in such a manner as to avoid all these objections, and to produce a union which is economical from a manufacturing standpoint, which is permanently durable and is not weakened when the bond is applied to the rail.

My invention may be briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel steps of a method or process of producing the bond.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings wherein I have illustrated the bond and the different steps in the process of producing the bond, Figure 1 is a view showing separately the three parts which are utilized in forming the union between the conductor and terminal, a. e., the conductor, a brazing sleeve which is designed to be slipped over the end of the conductor, and a socketed terminal; Fig. 2 is a similar view with the brazing sleeve slipped on to the conductor; Fig. 3 is a similar view after the conductor and brazing sleeve have been inserted in the socket of the terminal; Fig. 4 is a similar view after the conductor has been brazed to the terminal and after the terminal has been swaged into the desired shape; Fig. 5 is an end view of the same; Fig. 6 is a view illustrating the dies which are used in simultaneously producing the brazed union between the conductor and terminal and in swaging the terminal; Fig. 7 is aplan view of one form of the completed bond with the middle portion of the conductor removed; and Fig. 8 is a similar view of a slightly different form of bond.

In the drawings, 10 represents a stranded conductor, and '11 the terminal which is to be united to the conductor, both being formed of good conducting material, such as copper. The terminal 11, which at the beginning of the process consists-simply of a short section of round copper wire of suitable size to answer the requirements, has drilled into one end a socket 12, which extends into the terminal only a short dis tance so as to avoid extending the conductor into the terminal to the point where the terminal is engaged by heating electrodes when said terminal is united or secured to the rail. I

In order to secure a union between the terminal and conductorwhich is eficient both from mechanical and electrical standpoints, I first slip over the end of the conductor a proper brazing material, preferably in the .shape of a short sleeve 13 (see Fig. 2), and

then insert the end of the conductor with its surrounding sleeve into the socket of the terminal. (See 3). After this the rough terminal and inserted conductor are heated to a temperature corresponding substantially to the melting point of the brazing material, which temperature is below the melting point of copper, and considerably less than a temperature which would injurethe strands or produce serious oxidization.

Then, as a final step the heated terminal and conductor and now melted brazing sleeve are inserted between a pair of dies 145 and 15 (see Fig. 6),'and by pressure which need not be excessive a very eflective brazed union is secured between the conductor and the terminal, the conductor and terminal being brazed substantially uniformly from the point where the conductor enters the terminal to the inner end of the conductor.

- Simultaneously, with the brazing of these parts, that portion of the terminal which extends beyond the end of the socket is flattened or swaged into a comparatively thin tongue or projection 16. That portion of the terminal from the socketed end inward to the die and the .end of the conductor is not flattened, but retains somewhat its original circular shape, one of the dies having a cavity of suitable shape and dimensions to accommodate this part of the terminal while the remainder of the terminal, a, the part beyond the end of the conductor is by reason of the shape of the corresponding part of the same die subjected to greater pressure and is flattened into the shape just described. The excess metal which results from the flattening of the part 16 flows out into a suitable overflow. recessed portion of is subsequently trimmed ofl" the bond.

There is now formed the completed bond, such as shown at 17 in Fig. 7, or at 18 in Fig. 8. The bond 18 is formed precisely as above described, and it diflers from the bond shown in Fig; 7 in the respect that a ribbon conductor is utilized and the socketed .part of the terminal is at an angle to the axis of the terminal, so that the com ductor extending between the two terminals does not extend in a straight line from the terminals.

A bond constructed in the manner above ea ers described has numerous advantages, ins

cluding the following:l[t {can m'anufactured economically; the union between the bond and terminal is very efiicient and durable and is substantially unifiorm from the point where the conductor enters the terminal to the end of the socketed [part of the terminal; neither excessive heat nor excessive pressure is utilized, and consequently the strands at the point where they emerge from the terminal are not-mutilated and there is no serious oxidization; and because the conductor is inserted in the terminal only for a short distance, and does not extend to that part of the terminal which is designed to be united to the rail, the efficiency of the union between the conductor and the terminal is not in the least afiected method of brazing which includes pressing against the part 16 one or more heating electrodes.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The method of producing a rail bond, which comprises inserting a conductor into a socketed terminal; heating the conductorand terminal; and by pressure, brazing together the conductor and terminal and simultaneously swaging the terminal.

2. The method of producing a rail bond, which comprises uniformly uniting by heat and predetermined pressure a conductor and a portion of a bond terminal, and simultaneously applying pressure to another portion of the terminal so as to form a swaged end suitable to be united to a rail.

3. The method of forming a rail bond, which consists in uniting-a conductor to a portion of a terminal by brazing the same thereto through the application of heat and pressure, and simultaneously applying pressure to another portion of the bond located when the bond is applied to the rail bya as i conductor and a portion of a terminal member with a portion of the terminal member surrounding a portion of the conductor and "simultaneously flattening or shaping the portion of the bond terminal which is to applied to the rail.

'6; The method of forming a rail bond terminal which comprises surrounding a portion of the conductor with a portion of the In testimony whereof; I hereunto affix my terminal member and applying preslsure to signature in the presence of two witnesses. tie two parts. so as to simu taneous y intimately unite the conductor and terminal LAWRENCE CRECELIUS' member and flatten or shape the portion of Witnesses:

the terminal which is to be applied to the A. J. HUDSON,

rail. A. F. .KWIs. 

